Windows 7 Professional 64BIT missing NTLDR !

ur operating system is corrupted.reinstalling might solve the  problem

Thanks for the reply ynj.

A reinstall is a last resort which I'm trying to avoid.

If there is another option I'd rather try that first as I've spent all day reinstalling drivers/programs etc. It was only after that that I remebered the old XP drive was still the first boot drive so I went into BIOS and changed it only to find the NTLDR problem again !

You could try editing the boot.ini file in Win7 to remove WinXP as an OS option, but I agree with ynj; your Win7 install is probably corrupted.  

You could always unplug your WinXP hdd before reinstalling 7 and then plug it back in after, but when I installed 64-bit 7 on mine, I have 32-bit Vista on another drive and didn't have a problem.  I wasn't using any SSDs though.

Good luck.

There is not "boot.ini" file for Vista and Win7. Instead use EasyBCD to edit boot entries.

However, I do NOT think your Win7 install is corrupted. I've run into this very same problem before on my dad's computer. I think it has something to do with the conflicting way Win7 and XP deal with boot entries (xp uses boot.ini and Win7 uses bootmgr). Another problem is that C: drive is seen as D: in Win7, and the "D:" drive is seen as "C:" in XP (because the booted to drive is always seen as C:).

I'm quite sure your install is not corrupted - it has something to do with your boot entries which needs fiddling. I think where you said "My PC works fine like this" when the XP drive is set as the first boot option is the best way to go. If it works fine like that, just leave it. It does that because it sees the Win7 drive as XP drive when in Win7, and vice versa when in XP.

Thank you for the posts.

I originally tried installing Windows 7 with the XP drive unplugged but when I came to enter the product key it was not valid.

I then continued with the install (leaving the product key blank) and the instal completed without a problem. However, when I tried to activate Windows 7 online I received the following message :

"The Software Licensing Services determined that this specified product key can only be used for upgrading not for clean installation" !

This is pretty ironic as Microsoft advise that the only way to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 is by doing a "Clean Install".

I therefore had to reformat the SSD and install Windows 7 again (with the XP drive connected) which is when the problem started.

The other strange thing that I neglected to mention was that when I did successfully manage to install Windows 7, after booting from the CD and some initial files were loaded, I had the option to install Windows 7 (under EPM..) or something similar. It could have been EDM or EMP but I'm not sure.
However, I pressed F8 and was taken to the Window Safe Mode screen where I chose "Start Windows Normally" !

After choosing "Start Windows Normally" Windows 7 installed but with the problem stated my original question.

I'm currently running Windows 7 Pro 64bit without a problem but I do not want to have to keep a Windows XP OS hard drive as the main boot drive in my system in order fo it to work !

Thanks again for the posts.

I should also add that the Windows 7 drive is seen as the C drive and the Windows XP dirve is seen as the D drive in my system.

I have installed Easy BCD and these are the Bootloader entries it reports :

Entry #1

Name:  Earlier Version of Windows
BCD ID:  {ntldr}
Drive:  D:\
Bootloader Path:  \ntldr

Entry #2

Name:  Windows 7
BCD ID:  {current}
Drive:  C:\
Bootloader Path:  \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory:  \Windows

Based on this information, is there a way of rsolving the prolem without reinstalling Win7 ?

Thanks You

This is the full Bootlaoder entry reported by Easy BCD :

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Windows 7

Entry #1

Name:  Earlier Version of Windows
BCD ID:  {ntldr}
Drive:  D:\
Bootloader Path:  \ntldr

Entry #2

Name:  Windows 7
BCD ID:  {current}
Drive:  C:\
Bootloader Path:  \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory:  \Windows

What I cannot understand isthat, from the information above, it would appear that there is a problem with Entry #2 for Windows XP. However, I can boot staraight in to Windows XP without a problem but as soon as I boot from the Win7 drive as first boot drive I get the missing NTLDR error ! Why ?

What I cannot understand isthat, from the information above, it would appear that there is a problem with Entry #2 for Windows XP. However, I can boot staraight in to Windows XP without a problem but as soon as I boot from the Win7 drive as first boot drive I get the missing NTLDR error ! Why ?

You need to fiddle around with the boot entries till you can get it working. If using the XP drive as the first boot drive works with both Win7 and XP, I suggest you stick with that and leave it. Try switching around D: and C:, I'm not sure which combination will work.

Another option would be, once you got your Win7 activated and moved everything you need, you could just remove the XP drive...

Oh yeah, and I forgot to add, the reason for the NTLDR error is that boot is trying to load XP from the drive that has Win7 on it. That is because the boot entries are getting mixed up - it's seeing D: as C: in Win7, and vice versa in XP.

I had the same problem with my dad's comp - I'll ask him if he fixed it and how, and post it later today.

Thanks for the post iWinSolveBust.

This morning I ran a repair on Win7 using the install disk and no problems were found. I then did the same on Windows XP (which basically meant reinstalling it).

After doing this, the dual boot option at start-up completely and so I could not access the Win7 drive at all.

I therefore did another repair on Win7 and the software reported that it had repaired the boot sector of the OS ! I then got the dual boot option at start-up back again ! However, I still cannot boot directly to the Win7 drive without getting the missing NTLDR message !

Thanks again iWinSolveBust.

"it's seeing D: as C: in Win7, and vice versa in XP."

Surely, if that were the case, I wouldn't be able to boot directly from the Win XP drive either !

I know, but it's weird the way it handles boot entries. One boot drive is treated as the "master".

The WinXP drive is still a system drive.  You need to move the system drive to the Win7 drive and make sure it's marked as Active before it will just load Win7.  I'm not sure if it will keep the WinXP dual boot though.

I've never done it myself, you'll have to google it.

Thanks for the post mikeada.

The Win7 drive is a 64GB SSD drive with one partition so there is no possibility of installing XP on this drive.

I'm pretty sure this problem is to do with the Win7 upgrade problem that for which there is a lot of publicity all over the net. Win7 will not let you do a "clean install" without seeing an existing "installed" copy of Windows first. This means that you have to install over the existing OS in order to have Win7 as the main boot drive.

I was unable to do this as I had Windows XP 32bit and the Win7 64bit program would not run from within the 32bit OS !

I therefore "clean installed2 to a new hard drive (my prefered method) but as I have an "upgrade" version Win7 as opposed to a Full Version, Win7 has to see the old OS each time it boots.

I have been unable to find anyone else having the same problem with their Win7 install as myself but, this is the only thing I can think of that may be causing the problem. I hope i am wrong because i really want to remove my XP drive from the system.

You don't need to install XP on it.  I think you misunderstood.  Boot to Win7 and go into Computer manager and then go into Disk Drive manager.  Look at the two partitions and  you'll see that the XP drive will say System, ...  and the Win7 drive will say "Boot, System..."  You need to get Win7 to stop recognizing and using the XP drive as a system drive.  That means that it has win7 system files on there, maybe some swap space, etc.

Thank you for your input Mikeada, I think your right.

I have uploaded a picture of the Disk Mmanager of the drives in my system

However, how on earth do I change the system drive to the Win7 drive ?

I have tried removing the XP drive from the system and then running a repair on the Win7 drive buit this did not work !


DiskPriority.PNG

Thanks very much for you last response mikeada. Problem now solved.

I used the link you posted to neosmart.net. I read the main article and, apart from sound quite daunting (to me), I did not think it would necessarily have worked in my case as I do not have a small spare partition on my OS drive.

However, I read through peoples posts/comments on the article and post #9 caught my attention. I had tried to repair Win7 once already (with the XP drive removed) but without success. I didn't realise that it only fixes one error at a time. I therefore ran the Win7 repair on my OS three more times and on the third time no eroors were found. I restarted my PC (fingers crossed) and Win7 OS booted without a hitch.

I have since re-connected and dis-connected the XP drive and Win7 still boots perfectly on its own in both cases.

Thanks very much for your help and effort in finding the link that solved the problem. Top marks.

Top Marks to mikeada.

Just out of curiosity, boot to Win7 with the XP drive connected and I'm thinking that the XP drive will no longer show as a system drive in the Computer Manager.  With all that repairing it eventually moved everything over to the Win7 drive I think.

Your right. I was no longer given the dual boot option menu when starting the PC and in Disk Manager the XP drive was shown as Healthy (Active , Primary Partition).

However, when I made the repairs, the XP drive was disconnected. So once it was reconnected, why was it no longer recognised as a system drive ?

Thanks again.

There are some boot loader files that before, it was getting those boot loader files off the XP drive, and in the repair process you managed to get those boot loader files onto the Win7 Drive (NTLDR is one of them).  I've never had do that yet, but it looks like you accomplished it somehow.  I'm glad your problem is resolved.